PhonePe appoints Ritesh Pai to lead fintech firm’s global expansion plans

Walmart-owned fintech firm PhonePe has appointed Ritesh Pai as chief executive officer of its international payments business. The move comes at a time when India is looking to take the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) global. Countries like Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, France, the United Kingdom, and others are looking to embrace the UPI model, according to industry sources.

Pai is a seasoned digital payments sector leader with a proven track record of launching innovative solutions and structuring strategic business partnerships globally.

“Ritesh (Pai) has been an early believer and staunch supporter of the company and was very instrumental in our early UPI success story,” said Sameer Nigam, chief executive officer and founder of PhonePe. “I’m delighted that he’s joined us to lead our international growth plans.’’

In his last role, as the president of products and solutions at TerraPay, he was responsible for launching and implementing payment products and solutions globally. Before that, he served as the senior group president and chief digital officer at Yes Bank, where he led the digital strategy and transformation for the bank and launched multiple successful partnerships with many of today’s leading fintech players.

“I am excited to join PhonePe as it takes significant strides in shaping the future of digital payments on a global scale,” said Ritesh Pai, CEO of international payments, PhonePe. “PhonePe has achieved market leadership in India with its unwavering commitment to product innovation and building customer-centric solutions. I am confident that this same focus will help us expand our footprint beyond national borders, taking our payment technology to an international audience.”

Early last year, PhonePe launched a service that will allow the fintech firm’s Indian users travelling abroad to pay foreign merchants using Unified Payments Interface (UPI). ‘UPI International’ supports merchant outlets in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Nepal, and Bhutan that have a local QR (quick response) code. The firm said the users will be able to make direct payments in a foreign currency from their Indian bank, like they do with international debit cards. Walmart-backed PhonePe said it is the first Indian fintech app to launch the service.

PhonePe users can activate their UPI-linked bank account for the service at the merchant location, or prior to their international trip, via the PhonePe App. It would require the customer to enter their UPI PIN in order to activate the service.

Indian customers need to use a foreign currency or their credit or forex cards to pay at international merchant outlets. With PhonePe’s feature, they can now use their Indian bank account to pay using UPI.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in collaboration with NPCI International Payments Limited plans to roll out UPI International to more countries. NPCI developed UPI.

PhonePe was founded in December 2015 and has emerged as India’s largest payments app. In November 2023, PhonePe said it has crossed 500 million lifetime registered users on its platform. With this milestone, 1 in 3 Indians are now on PhonePe.

The company said it is the first Indian internet company to have reached this scale globally. This milestone has been achieved in just over 7 years since the PhonePe UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments launched in August 2016.

The firm competes with players such as Google Pay, Paytm, and Amazon Pay in the digital payments space. The company has successfully digitised over 36 million offline merchants across Tier-II, -III, and -IV towns, and beyond, covering 99 per cent of India’s PIN codes. Payments were enabled through millions of PhonePe QR codes, including smart speakers installed at small businesses across the country.

First Published: Jan 05 2024 | 6:28 PM IST